Marussia celebrates two-car finish

The Marussia team defied sceptics who didn't think its untested car would make it through the opening F1 race of 2012 by gettingt both Timo Glock and Charles Pic classified as finishers.

It may have been Timo Glock's 30th birthday on Sunday, but the entire Marussia Racing team felt eligible to celebrate after the German and rookie team-mate Charles Pic both brought their largely untried cars to the finish of the Australian Grand Prix.

The Russian-owned squad missed each of the three pre-season group tests after delays in the manufacture and development of the MR01 were exacerbated by failing the mandatory crash test, and only managed a brief shakedown at a planned promotional event before the cars were shipped out to Australia for the opening round. Rain throughout the opening day of the meeting then restricted more meaningful dry track running, but both drivers did well to qualify for the 58-lap race.

Despite having had no pre-season testing, the MR01 behaved impeccably throughout its debut and, while unable to live with the new Caterham, rewarded the hard work and determination that brought the Banbury-based team through a tough winter.

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"I know I speak for the whole team when I say I am absolutely delighted with the new car's racing debut this weekend," team principal John Booth enthused, "I said on Friday that, despite P12 for Timo in FP2, I didn't want us to get carried away with ourselves because qualifying could be a different story and the race was highly likely to expose some of the reliability aspects of the car that we have not yet had the chance to explore due to our lack of testing.

"It really is quite something to have come so far in such a short space of time and in such challenging circumstances. Coming into the weekend, the car had just 200km of promotional running on demonstration tyres and, since we started here on Friday, we have completed 215 near faultless laps - that's 1120km!"

As well as praising the 'backroom boys' who made the cars' presence in Australia possible in the first place, Booth also commended the drivers, who ability to get the car to the finish promoted the team to its highest placing in the teams' championship.

"All credit to both drivers, who have been fantastic throughout," he said, "Timo talked all the way through the race, giving us vital feedback to add to the mountain of data we've been able to gather thanks to the good mileage, while Charles' debut has been very impressive indeed and made very clear to us that he means business in his debut year.

"I'd like to take this opportunity to thank our partners - those who have been with us throughout and all the new names who joined us in the weeks leading up to the race - for their faith in the Marussia F1 team, which I am pleased has been rewarded this weekend at Albert Park. We should be under no illusions that plenty of work lies ahead but tenth in the constructors' championship is not a bad place to start."

Both drivers delivered calm and assured performances before Glock was rewarded with the best birthday present he has had in several F1 seasons. Having been promoted to 20th on the grid by Sergio Perez's gearbox penalty, the German veteran successfully navigated the first corner melee to run 13th early on. Although he dropped back thereafter, the appearance of the safety car to remove a stranded Caterham allowed Glock to unlap himself before embarking on a relatively conservative final stint to ensure he got to the finish.

"A great race for the team and a huge reward for all the hard work and pressure over the last few months," the German confirmed, "It's important to remember that we came here with no real running with the new car. Add the potential for reliability problems - because they always happen with every team in pre-season testing - and it has been quite a special weekend to get the car home in the first race with no issues.

"I chose a good line into turn one and was able to avoid the problems we saw there, moving up to 13th position. I had a bit of a fight with Caterham for a while, but I knew I needed to concentrate on my own race. The car was very consistent and, in the end, to finish 14th, I have to be happy with that and so do the team, as it is an important start for position in the constructors' championship.

"The car gave me a birthday present for sure, and I will enjoy that for now but, tomorrow, the hard work starts again as we have a lot to do to improve the car. I've said it before but my thanks again to the team. A great start."

Pic's grand prix debut started from 21st position, which became 18th after the first corner shake-up, but ended prematurely when he was forced to come into the garage just two laps before the chequered flag as an oil pressure concern forced the team to be cautious with the car. However, the French rookie completed enough of the race to be classified 15th.

"I am quite happy with my first race and very pleased for the team to have such a good debut for the car," the GP2 graduate confirmed, "Everything was quite positive during the race, although I had a few problems in the beginning and then I had to pull in a few laps from the end as the team wanted to be cautious with the car. It's a shame I wasn't able to take the chequered flag, but I am happy to end the race in 15th position after the difficulties leading up to the start of the season.

"There is still so much work for us and more to come from me and the car, but we have a lot of information from the weekend to help us prepare for this and for Malaysia next weekend."